Cicada ManiaBecquartina electa is a cicada found in China, Thailand, and Vietnam. They are part of a group of cicadas known as “butterfly cicadas” because of their colorful wings.
Photo by Michel Chantraine:
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Gaeanini
SubTribe: Becquartinina
Genus: Becquartina
Species: Becquartina electa (Jacobi, 1902)
Balinta auriginea Distant, 1905, from… Mis. du Ht. Song-Chai. according to the Genera Insectorum, 1914. [I don’t know where that is exactly.]
A slight name change, from the image below at least: Balinta auriginea not Balinta aurigenia.
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Gaeanini
SubTribe: Gaeanina
Genus: Balinta
Species: Balinta auriginea Distant, 1905
Balinta genus description by W. L. Distant:
Characters. — Head (including eyes) about as wide as base of mesonotum and as long as pronotum, obliquely depressed in front of eyes; pronotum about as long as mesonotum, its lateral margins sinuate, the posterior angles moderately dilated; abdomen in male much longer than space between apex of head and base of cruciform elevation ; tympanal coverings both shorter and narrower than the tympanal orifices, which are most exposed inwardly; opercula in male small and transverse, widely separated, and not extending beyond base of abdomen; rostrum reaching posterior coxae ; anterior femora strongly spined beneath; tegmina and wings opaque; tegmina with their greatest breadth about one third their length and with eight apical areas.
Taona versicolor Distant, 1909, is found in China. Like other members of the tribe Gaeanini, its wings are colorful and reminiscent of butterflies.
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Gaeanini
SubTribe: Gaeanina
Genus: Taona
Species: Taona versicolor Distant, 1909
Taona genus description by W. L. Distant:
Characters. — Head (including eyes) about as wide as base of mesonotum and as long as pronotum, the front not obliquely deflected but horizontally produced in front of and a little below the anterior margin of the vertex; ocelli somewhat close together near middle of vertex; face prominent, somewhat compressed, strongly transversely ridged; clypeus strongly compressed and reaching the anterior coxae; pronotum about as long as mesonotum, its lateral margins nearly straight; rostrum- reaching the posterior cox
Talainga binghami Distant, 1890, is found in Burma, Vietnam, and south-east Asia, in general.
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Gaeanini
SubTribe: Talaingina
Genus: Talainga
Species: Talainga binghami Distant, 1890
Photo by Michel Chantraine.
Talainga genus description by W. L. Distant:
Characters. — Head (including eyes) a little narrower than base of mesonotum, about as long as breadth between eyes, front globose and prominent, shorter than vertex; pronotum about as long as mesonotum, its lateral margins a little convex, angularly incised before ‘posterior angles which are ampliated; abdomen somewhat cylindrical, longer than space between apex of head and base of cruciform elevation; tympanal coverings small and lateral; anterior femora robustly spined beneath; tegmina talc-like, semi-opaque, the apical half with the venation reticulate and forming a mass of small cellular areas, sometimes the ulnar areas are crossed by transverse veins, basal cell about twice as long- as broad; wings with the posterior margin deeply sinuate near the abdominal area; apical areas six, sometimes broken up by transverse veins into a more numerous and reticulate series.
Balinta auriginea Distant, 1905, is found in south-east Asia. Thailand, maybe — the Genera Insectorum says “Mis. du Ht. Song-Chai.”
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Gaeanini
SubTribe: Gaeanina
Species: Balinta
Species: Balinta auriginea Distant, 1905
Balinta genus description by W. L. Distant:
Characters. — Head (including eyes) about as wide as base of mesonotum and as long as pronotum, obliquely depressed in front of eyes; pronotum about as long as mesonotum, its lateral margins sinuate, the posterior angles moderately dilated; abdomen in male much longer than space between apex of head and base of cruciform elevation ; tympanal coverings both shorter and narrower than the tympanal orifices, which are most exposed inwardly; opercula in male small and transverse, widely separated, and not extending beyond base of abdomen; rostrum reaching posterior coxae ; anterior femora strongly spined beneath; tegmina and wings opaque; tegmina with their greatest breadth about one third their length and with eight apical areas.
Once known as Gaeana stellata — yes, its name has changed — Ambragaeana stellata (Walker, 1858) can be found in China, Thailand, India, and likey other nations the south-eastern part of Asia. Ambragaeana cicadas belong to a group nicknamed the “butterfly cicadas” because of the butterfly-like colors and patterns of their wings.
“Stellata”, I believe, is derived from the Latin word for “star” — it doesn’t take much imagination to see the “stars” in the wings of this cicada.
Scientific classification:
Family: Cicadidae
Subfamily: Cicadinae
Tribe: Gaeanini
SubTribe: Gaeanina
Genus: Ambragaeana
Species: Ambragaeana stellata (Walker, 1858)
The image says Gaeana stellata, but the newest name for this cicada is Ambragaeana stellata.
Photo by Michel Chantraine.
Worth noting: There are two sub-species of Ambragaeana.
Here’s a cicada I never thought I would see, but thanks to Raghu Ananth, here are two photos of a Tosena sibyla Gaeana atkinsoni.
This photo was taken on May 2nd, 2009:
Note the characteristic double stripes on the forewings. Note how the smaller stripe doesn’t make it all the way to the claval fold.
Here are observations about this cicada provided by Raghu Ananth:
Brief description –
The cicada has red eyes, red thorax with black patch above, red abdomen, black wings with yellow veins and a large yellow patch lines on the wings.Numbers. found – several dozens.
Habitat – tree barks near forest path
length – 4-5 cmsThe orange-red coloured cicada is one of the beautiful cicadas in the forests. It has a red body, red eyes and black wings with yellow patches. During one of our trips to the evergreen forests in the Uttara Kannada district (Karnataka), we spotted two of them camouflaged on the bark of each tree, actively walking up and down and then appearing a colourful red when in flight from one bark of the tree to another. Their singing, however, seemed not in sync with each another. On our approach, they would try to hide behind the bark or fly to a distant tree.
This illustration of a T. sibylla Gaeana atkinsoni comes from the document A monograph of oriental cicadidae (1892) by W. L. Distant.
Updated (5/8/2014) with a video by Harinath Ravichandran: